Robot Gift Guide 2016

Welcome to the 5th version of our annual Robot Gift Guide! This 12 months, we convey you a dozen robots that we assume will make superb excursion presents. Just as we’ve finished inside the beyond (for a fast trip through recent robotics history, take a look at out 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions), this 12 months’s selection includes more often than not new products launched in 2016 but also some objects from previous years that we nevertheless like. We tested a lot of these bots ourselves, and you may have seen our in-depth evaluations here on the blog. And even as we provide costs and hyperlinks to places wherein you may purchase those gadgets, we’re now not endorsing any in particular, and a bit bit of searching may additionally bring about better offers (all prices are in U.S. Bucks). Lastly, if you assume we missed the fine robotic component (or matters) of the yr, let us understand within the feedback.

Fotokite Phi
Fotokite Phi
Photo: Fotokite
Photography drones don’t get tons simpler, more secure, or cheaper than this: The Fotokite Phi, which comes from drone researchers at ETH Zurich and had a successful Indiegogo campaign remaining 12 months, is now to be had to anybody for $250 (GoPro now not blanketed). As its name shows, the Fotokite is hooked up to you by means of a bodily leash, so you don’t must worry about controlling it at the same time as it flies—you preserve the leash and the drone follows you.

$250
Fotokite
Anki Cozmo
Anki Cozmo
Photo: Anki
At first, we have been skeptical that Anki’s Cozmo would be able to really keep our hobby, however after speaking with its developers, it sounds love it’s going to have some very dazzling talents for this type of little man, at the side of an SDK that’s designed to offer you fully get admission to a stunning quantity of intelligence and autonomy. Our advice: Get one for a kid to your lifestyles, and then steal it to play with your self when they go to bed.

$180
Anki
iRobot Roomba 960
Roomba 960
Photo: iRobot
We appreciated the Roomba 980 while we reviewed it earlier this 12 months, and the more current 960 is a totally minor step down in functions on the way to prevent $200. You nonetheless get the visual SLAM mapping, multi-room cleaning, and app connectivity, and the reality that the 960 has a smaller battery and will need to recharge extra regularly doesn’t be counted all that a lot because it’ll pick up right where it left off. If $seven-hundred continues to be too steep, we also can suggest the not fancy in any respect but nonetheless totally decent Roomba 650, that’s often on sale for underneath $300.

$seven-hundred $600 (till Dec. 3)
iRobot
Neato Botvac Connected
Neato Botvac Connected
Photo: Neato
Lasers make each robotic a million times higher at doing the entirety, and vacuums are not an exception. A lidar sensor we could Neato’s robots map your private home and vacuum correctly in pleasant direct strains; essentially, it’s like a touch self-sustaining vehicle that drives around your living room cleaning stuff so you don’t need to. If you’re seeking out a less pricey model, the Neato Botvac D3 is only $four hundred, with the sacrifice of a few battery potentials and an aspect brush (laser protected!).

$seven hundred
Neato
Kamigami
Kamigami
Photo: Dash Robotics
Born out of studies at UC Berkeley, Kamigami is the absolute fastest flat-p.C. In most cases, cardboard hexapedal app-controlled indestructible robotic trojan horse available on the market right now. It’s short and smooth to construct your self without any gear and comes with a telephone app that allows more than one robots to play games with every other, and additionally presents easy programming surroundings. Little legged robots like these are still inspiring active studies, but they’re clearly designed for clients, with the sort of durability meaning they can be thrown off a roof without taking any damage.

$99
Kamigami
Robots Play 700
ROBOTIS PLAY seven-hundred
Photo: Robotics
Last 12 months, Robotics added its Play 600 kit, which lets kids build easy robot creatures powered with the aid of a motorized gearbox. The new Play seven-hundred package, released this yr, uses the equal colored plastic pieces and rivets, that are clean and fun to gather, however, it adds a more superior controller whose application kids can alter. Now younger roboticists (the package is designed for a while 8+) can construct a scorpion bot, a windmill, or a racecar, amongst different things, and alternate their behaviors the usage of a telephone and Robotics’ R+PLAY700 iOS or Android app.

$90
Robotics
Hummingbird Robotics Kit
Hummingbird Robotics Kit
Photo: BirdBrain Technologies
Created via Carnegie Mellon spinoff BirdBrain Technologies, the Hummingbird is a genuinely smooth to apply and program controller board for buying started out with robotics. The finest factor approximately it’s miles that you may effortlessly connect additives like sensors, actuators, and LEDs by way of inserting wires into unique connectors on the board, no soldering required. The Hummingbird Duo Premium Kit includes four hobby servos, dc equipment cars, unmarried- and tri-color LEDs, and a group of sensors. To software the board, you can use CREATE, a visual programming software, or the Arduino IDE.

$269
Birdbrain Technologies
Double 2
Double 2
Photo: Double Robotics
I didn’t think I would like Double’s latest telepresence robot, but I was wrong. Mobile records won’t quite be as much as the venture of letting you wander around simply anywhere for sure everywhere else (but), but in many conditions, Double is an effective manner of providing you with an embodied presence in an area that you can’t be in any other case. It’s fantastically easy to force, and after you get past the novelty, it feels as similar to being there as you can without being there. The caveat right here (and it’s a huge one) in which you’ll want your personal iPad for the robotic to work.

$three,000
Double
Parrot Disco FPV Kit
Parrot Disco
Photo: Parrot
Flying Parrot’s Disco drone is a great quantity of fun, and it’s one of the first-class approaches to get into constant-wing FPV drones there is. Like all of Parrot’s drones, the Disco looks after the maximum of the tough components of flying for you, and when you get the cling of the hand-released takeoff, the drone may be very hard to damage, even in case you land it badly over and over. And over. At $1,300, we notion it becomes a touch highly-priced, to begin with, however, Parrot has now dropped the fee to $1,000, that is a whole lot greater reasonable, thinking about what it comes with Parrot’s fancy Skycontroller 2, along with a headset so that it will flip your smartphone into a VR show. We additionally still like Parrot’s different (less expensive) drones, which include the $300 AR Drone 2.Zero and the $500 Bebop 2.

$1,000
Parrot
Flybrix
Flybrix
Photo: Flybrix
Now that someone has completed this, it seems so obvious: A modular package that you may use to make drones out of Legos. Endless capability for customization combined with a shape that can be without problems destroyed and rebuilt just as easily. We haven’t tried the sort of out for ourselves, so we’re now not positive how long lasting and clean to apply its miles in practice, but we virtually just like the idea. The primary kit is $one hundred ninety, but we pick having a physical controller as opposed to an app.